Blaze King Ashford 30 smoke smell on low

[lmw77]

We have had a BK Sirocco 30 for 3 years and have always had a distinct smell when we turn it down low. After 2 years talking (complaining) to the dealer/installer, moisture testing every piece of wood, replacing the door seal, extending the flue, resealing the flue-fire join, a new unit was installed. The replacement has allowed us to control the heat slightly better but still smells if down low (4 o'clock or lower on t'stat). If we put our noses close to the unit when we first notice the smell we can detect it mostly through the thermometer hole. This seems the most likely place that air can escape, but theoretically if the cat is doing its job the only thing moving through there is water vapour, right? The cat always looks to be glowing and active when we're getting the smell. The upshot is we can never get an overnight burn because we can't turn it down low enough to last all night. I wonder how many other people's observations and troubleshooting matches our experience and if we should all be letting BK know the extent of the issue. Our fire is located in the lowest point in our house (2-storey and also 2 steps down to living room) and I wonder if this affects how much the smell moves upwards. Any confirmation or further advice much appreciated.

 

[begreen]

We have had a BK Sirocco 30 for 3 years and have always had a distinct smell when we turn it down low. After 2 years talking (complaining) to the dealer/installer, moisture testing every piece of wood, replacing the door seal, extending the flue, resealing the flue-fire join, a new unit was installed. The replacement has allowed us to control the heat slightly better but still smells if down low (4 o'clock or lower on t'stat). If we put our noses close to the unit when we first notice the smell we can detect it mostly through the thermometer hole. This seems the most likely place that air can escape, but theoretically if the cat is doing its job the only thing moving through there is water vapour, right? The cat always looks to be glowing and active when we're getting the smell. The upshot is we can never get an overnight burn because we can't turn it down low enough to last all night. I wonder how many other people's observations and troubleshooting matches our experience and if we should all be letting BK know the extent of the issue. Our fire is located in the lowest point in our house (2-storey and also 2 steps down to living room) and I wonder if this affects how much the smell moves upwards. Any confirmation or further advice much appreciated.

This comes up occasionally. It has been reported several times and may be related to the door gasket getting saturated with smoke and creosote during a low burn. Or the door gasket may not be centered on the knife-edge seal. BKVP will be catching this soon. Moving to a new thread.

 

[begreen]

This thread may be helpful.

Blaze king Ashford 30.2 smoke smell problem

I'll preface this by saying I am running a substandard chimney setup that involves a wall pass through into an insulated liner inside an exterior masonry chimney. Total height is 12' from stove top, so it's still too short but I don't have a reasonable way to improve this without a lot more...

www.hearth.com

 

[Ashful]

Another theory was that some of the taller chimneys were creating sufficient air velocity at the air wash (above door) to create a localized high-pressure zone in that area. Very interesting, and seems possible.

But if the smell is acrid old creo smell, then I like your saturated gasket theory better. My gasket definitely gets caked with creo at the lower edge of the door, in the stove that I run on 24 hour cycles. That stove also has a shorter chimney, and it is the only one of the pair I own that has ever made any smell. It has only happened 2x or 3x in 7 years but there have been just a few times that I've smelled something in the room where that stove sits.

The stove on the taller chimney is run on 24 hour cycles, and never smells, although I also keep a key damper cranked down to negate the tall chimney effect.

 

[Highbeam]

As far as your question about everything downstream of that being just water vapor, no, it’s still exhaust. It still stinks. It smells different than the exhaust from a non cat stove but still stinks.